Impersonators pose as policemen and doctors

Eight arrested in Assam for cheating

10/04/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,GUWAHATI

COVID-19 may not have hit Assam badly but has led to a rise in cases of impersonation for making a quick buck.

In the past two days, the police caught at least eight people across the State for impersonating the men in uniform and other government officials to extract money from trucks carrying essentials and shops in the rural areas that open on the sly.

On Wednesday, the police in eastern Assam’s Jorhat district arrested three men who had taken fraudulence to another level – by posing as doctors assigned to disseminate awareness and test people for possible infection for a fee.

The trio had been operating for some days in villages around Jorhat town.

“We caught them from the Titabor area on the basis of public complaints. Apart from conning people by posing as doctors and showing them their photos with ambulances, they also tried to pass off as officials and seized gutkha packets to demand money from shops,” Jorhat Superintendent of Police Mrinal Talukdar said.

Diganta Neog (25), Ujjwal Bora (24) and Biswajyoti Dutta (18) were produced before a court and sent to jail.